Washington ? President Bush on Saturday pressed Senate Democrats to stand up to the challenge of terrorism by agreeing to his proposal for a Homeland Security Department with broad power to “move people and resources to meet new threats.”

Bush, in his weekly radio address, said the bill now before the Senate was unacceptable and he favored a compromise by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Tex., and Zell Miller, D-Ga. Bush said their measure would meet his demands for flexibility while adequately protecting the 170,000 federal workers expected to staff the new department.

Bush was going after the votes of Democratic moderates and of one middle-of-the road Republican, Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island.

The Gramm-Miller plan “would provide the new secretary of homeland security much of the flexibility he needs to move people and resources to meet new threats,” Bush said. “It will protect every employee of the new department against illegal discrimination and build a culture in which federal employees know they are keeping their fellow citizens safe.”

Compromise is essential, Bush said, because the threat of terrorism has not diminished.

“The enemy is still at large, threatening our safety and security,” he said. “Defeating terrorism requires constant vigilance and preparation by our citizens and by our government.”

The White House put new energy into a public relations and lobbying campaign to influence the votes of a few senators said to hold the key to establishing the new Cabinet-level department on the president’s terms. One White House official said Bush was within a single vote of success.

Democrats, who control the Senate by a one-vote margin, largely oppose Bush’s demands to be allowed for reasons of national security to implement a new personnel system in the agency and waive union job rules. Bush has threatened to veto any bill that does not include those powers.

The House has passed a bill that conforms to the president’s request. In the Senate, the dispute is expected to come to head this week after three weeks of debate.